The demand for high quality speakers has increased dramatically over the last twenty years. As a consequence, there is a large selection of high-quality speakers available on the market. Unfortunately, speakers are somewhat bulky and cumbersome. Thus, there has also been a demand to mount speakers in the ceiling and in walls.
The mounting of high quality speakers in the ceiling or in walls is an expensive enterprise, particularly since brackets to accommodate such mounting must typically be custom-made. Frequently, considerable effort is associated with the use of such brackets.
The effort required to mount in-wall speakers is of concern both in new construction and retrofit installations. In new construction installations a bracket is attached to the wall frame or studs of the wall prior to the application of a wall covering. In retrofit mounting installations a bracket is used to mount the speaker in a pre-existing wall, i.e., wherein the wall covering has already been applied. In such retrofit applications, an opening is typically formed within the wall covering and the bracket is then inserted through the opening and attached to the wall covering and/or studs disposed within the wall. As will be appreciated, both new installations and retrofit installation of in-wall speakers are difficult and time consuming processes.
Prior art brackets utilizing wings for attaching the bracket to the frame members are known. Such prior art brackets provide a substantial improvement over the use of custom brackets. One such prior art bracket is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,134, issued on Oct. 19, 1988, to Struthers et al., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
However, the use of prior art brackets which incorporate such wings requires that the frame members or studs to which the wings are attached be notched or mortised in order to accommodate the thickness of the wings such that the wallboard applied thereover does not bulge or bow outwardly due to the thickness of wings disposed intermediate the studs and the wall covering. It has been found that with wing members as thin as 1/16th inch (0.0625 inch) that sufficient bowing of the wall covering occurs to be objectionable.
As such, it would be desirable to provide a bracket for the in-wall mounting of speakers which does not require that the studs of the wall be mortised, i.e., which does not result in bowing of the wall covering.
Furthermore, prior art brackets typically suffer from the deficiency that they do not easily accommodate wall coverings of various thicknesses. Prior art brackets must typically be formed to accommodate a wall covering having a particular thickness, thus reducing the flexibility of the bracket for use in various different installations.
Those brackets which are adjustable to accommodate wall coverings of various thicknesses typically require that the bracket be removed from the wall in order to effect such adjustment. Thus, prior art brackets cannot be easily adjusted while disposed in place within the wall, i.e., in their installed configuration.
As such, it is also desirable to provide a wall mount speaker bracket that provides for quick and simple adjustment while installed within a wall so as to accommodate varying wall covering thicknesses.
Generally, prior art in-wall speaker mounting brackets are specifically intended for use in either new construction installations or in retrofit installations. That is, a particular bracket is typically not suited for use in both types of installation. During new construction, the frame members or studs are exposed for easy attachment of the bracket thereto prior to the application of the wall covering thereover. Thus, easy access to the frame members or studs makes installation of the bracket a comparatively simple matter. However, in retrofit installations, the frame members or studs are covered with a wall covering which not only obscures the studs, but also severely limits access thereto. Thus, in such retrofit installations, it is much more difficult to attach the bracket to the studs.
Although contemporary practice has generally been to provide separate bracket configurations for use in new construction installations and retrofit installations, it would be desirable to provide a single bracket suitable for use in both.